Today, on this beautiful Green Sunday, we celebrate a very special day in our Armenian Church calendar—a day that breathes life, renewal, and hope into our spirits. Green Sunday is not just a tradition; it is a profound reminder of the vibrant life God promises us, a celebration of renewal, just as the earth renews itself in the spring.
Zahrad, one of the most influential names of Armenian poetry in the second half of the twentieth century, was born Zareh Yaldizciyan on May 10, 1924, in the Nişantaşi district of Istanbul. He lost his father, who had been a jurist, adviser, and translator for the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, at the age of three. His mother remarried and he grew up with his maternal grandfather Levon Vartanyan.
In 1942 he graduated from the Mekhitarist Lyceum of Istanbul. He attended the Faculty of Medicine of Istanbul University but dropped after a while in order to work. He published his first poem in the daily Jamanak with the pseudonym Zahrad in 1943. His first collection of poetry, The Big City, appeared in 1960. He married Anayis Antreasian in 1963.
From Armenian Diocese of America
